your best campaign (using a nigh-impossible faction)

[Paul d]

mine is my current saka one. pics soon, as i am only 10 turns into the game.

interested to see how others are doing with the supposedly superhard factions.

[Malik of Sindh]

with Pontos i succesfully conquared all asia minor and Antioch thats my best one with nigh impossible.

[ENSAIS]

Maybe I stink, but starting with Pontos I was in neg economy by turn 3, had to cheat 10k to stay alive. 10 turns later, needed another 10k. After taking 5 cities, cheating was becoming more fun than not building anything to maintain an army of 1 unit it each city (plus family governor) and 1 "conquering army of 6 whole units, so I cheated 25k.

bottom line, had to cheat or die.

[Paul d]

pic very soon: saka empire; conquored all of eastern seleucid empire, half of sauromatae, all of baktria and parthia, and moving further into sauromatae, after than gonna swoop thru armenia, kill em, and finish of sels. after al this, i gonna finally invade india (why do each town have fullstack gaurd?)

[Malik of Sindh]

pic very soon: saka empire; conquored all of eastern seleucid empire, half of sauromatae, all of baktria and parthia, and moving further into sauromatae, after than gonna swoop thru armenia, kill em, and finish of sels. after al this, i gonna finally invade india (why do each town have fullstack gaurd?)

I think this is because Mauryans weren't so weak.

[thegravytrain18]

I'm playing as Pahlava, and I honestly can say its been the funnest campaign I've played so far on RTW/mods. Now I gotta confess, I'm only on M/M, but it is my first EB campaign and I'm loving it. My only gripe so far with it is that the AI just attacks me with armies of cheap merc infantry, which will never touch my horse archers. One battle I killed like 400 (unit scale is on "normal") and lost about 4 horse archers. But thats just because they had no cavalry or even missile units. So I'm waiting until I finally get in a war with the Saraumatae or the Saka. THAT is going to be a fun challenge. But after conquering all of Baktria and fighting of many a SA army, my horse archer army is VERY hardened I've had the same core horse archer units since the very first battle. I'll be ready.

[konny]

The best campaign in that sense was with Pontos: I rushed for Pergamon right from the start (there are mines from the start), created a sub-faction 'Kingdom of Pergamon' with a hughe classical Greek army of Hoplites, made it across the Aegean and conquered Greece. Since I had mines built all around and due to the mass amount of trade between Asia Minor and Greece, I became incredible rich.

I quited the game when beeing attacked by AS and had to look more for my core faction, Pontos - what I had more or less forgotten when playing the 'Pergamon faction'.

[Leão magno]

Mine is a Karthadastim one (no news here) I control only my factional regions and Kirta, Lixus, Emporium, Massalia, Messana are allireds (type IV), due to Emporiom and Massalia’s efforts Carthage sent armies to take Arse (which may happen real soon now). I have a Puno-Celtiberian recruited general (recruited in Kirta) defending my west frontier against the nasty Ptolemais (who are sinking every ships of mine) while a Puno-Helene general has conquered Rhegion (new puppet ruler) just to press the SPQR to leave an allied (controlled by Eleutheroi) Segesta alone. Carthage will not tolerate Romans to control a port so near Alalia (though they know the AI will never send an army there). Has been fun though I still feel like Romans are too coward to give me a real Punic war!

[Zenith Darksea]

Carthage wants a bit of Arse, does it?

Sorry, I really couldn't resist. Somebody had to make that joke sooner or later!

[Leão magno]

I know you could not resist it!

[Aketi]

Playing Pontos is awesome. Never had such a fun campaign in any Total War game, I am playing with BI.exe on VH/M and it gets harder as time goes by. I conquered Sinope, Trapezunt, Ankyra and Nikaia with my starting army. After that the army was no more but I slowly started getting out of my 13000 mnai debt. Fortunately the grey death left me alone for about 10 years, then they came with a full stack. Its 240 now and I own most of Anatolia and the Levant. The problem is I am being attacked by everyone losing and retaking cities every few turns, many are down to less than 500 citizens. I need to decide if I go for mainland Greece or Mesopotamia? Any advice?

[konny]

I conquered Sinope, Trapezunt, Ankyra and Nikaia with my starting army. After that the army was no more but I slowly started getting out of my 13000 mnai debt.

I suppose Ankyra was quite costy to take.

I need to decide if I go for mainland Greece or Mesopotamia? Any advice?

hmm That's hard to say from your position. Are you at war with Epeiros as well? If so, I would go West because you might be able to secure that flank with a few victories. The Greys still hold a lot of more land. Also by terms of trade, taxe and mining Greece is by far more of interesst than the Iranian highlands.

On the other hand, your main zones of recruitments are in the East. By terms of military the old Persian lands are much more homeland for your faction than anything you have and will conquer(ed) in the West.


So, you will become richer going West and stronger going East.

[Aketi]

Thanks for the advice konny. I'am going west. Also, you will want to play Pontos next and update your very nice guide.

I suppose Ankyra was quite costy to take.

Yes but I used some tricks in my first battles like hit and run tactics more precisely seperating enemy units or using all arrows, stones and javelins of my units and then fleeing from the battlefield...In sieges I would try to entangle the bulk of the enemy army and then go for the capture-spot. I just didn't feel like losing my campaign because thats what happened in my pontic 0.8 attempt (although that was fun). Nonetheless 1.0 is easier than previous 0.8 Pontos.

What is this? Did Epeiros and Makedonia exchanged their lands?

Yes it's nice.

And Crusader :hmmm:, you will write a hundred times "I shall secure Pergamon before the Maks can get it."

The mines will give them a boost what will result in, minimum, one full stack that will cause a lot of havoc in your backyard.

I conquered it and left a small garrison. Then the Maks came with 3 stacks.

[konny]

Also, you will want to play Pontos next and update your very nice guide.

Since that wonderfull recruitment viewer is out, a guide that simply lists possible units in a specific province is somewhat obsolete. But I will update that in a different way, showing what governement is to be built in each province to get the maximum from both branches of MICs. The first version for the Romans is as good as finished. For Pontos there is also a lot done and will be the next one.

[Paul d]

Okay heres my pic as promised. AS you can see, I own roughly 1/5 of the map, but my economy is crap (due to mass recriut of alan and roxolani nobles for war with scythia. year is 239, winter

lost a few southern towns to Seleukids, but pretty soon will take them back using men recruited from parthia.

I own 25-28 regions soon to defeat sauromatae and then maybe pincir hayasdan


sorry for wierd strip type thing, i wanted to get just the bottom corner, but my tools prevent me
that town is my next target.

[The Vandal Returns]

well, 25 regions is more than i have ever done with anything more than a 'challenging' faction

[Renegen]

I'm playing as the Sab'yn, there's fun and challenging.

[Companion Cavalry]

With Armenia I took all of North Africa except this city south of Ippone (can't remember name right now) Palestine, Asia Minor, the entire caucasus, the lands Alexander once held in the east and one province in Britain, through bribery.

This empire fell apart as it was on Hard/Very Hard difficulty and it took enormous effort to win an empire of that size and train enough soldiers to maintain it and then your profits start shrinking and squalor builds up in cities, and you are attacked by all your neighbours, etc

[Arutima]

vh/m Hayasdan game

I also have a game with pontos and the sabeans That goes pretty well

[Aketi]

Wow how cool is that?
Lusotans and Carthage going rampage! I have never seen Carthage take all of Italy.